My aim is to offer insights into some of the more subtle principles underpinning prints. The commentary is based on thirty-eight years of teaching and the prints and other collectables that I am focusing on are those which I have acquired over the years.
In the galleries of prints (accessed by clicking the links immediately below) I am also adding fresh images offered for sale. If you get lost in the maze of links, simply click the "home" button to return to the blog discussions.

Monday, 30 January 2017

Pieter Serwouters’ etching of a crossbowman after David Vinckboons

“Man with a
Crossbow”,c.1607–08, after
David Vinckboons (aka David Vinckeboons;
David Vinckboins) (1576–1632), printed by Pieter
Goos (aka Pierre Goosen) (1616–c.75)

Etching on fine
laid paper trimmed to the image borderline and without the lettered textbox
giving publication details and two lines of verse.

Size: (sheet) 24.3
x 19.5 cm

Lettered at the
lower edge: "DVBoons Inuentor / PSerwouter Scalp."

The British
Museum offers the following description of this print in its fourth state with
two lines of English verses (this impression is from an earlier state before
these lines of verse were inscribed):

The Rijksmuseum
offers the following description of this print which may be from the same earlier
state than the impression held by the BM:

“A kneeling man
pointing his crossbow accurately. Next to him is a basket of shot birds, on the
other side lies a dog. Sitting on a tree branch above him an owl that poops
hunter on his head. In the background, an archer tournament, which will be shot
with crossbows on a bird on a pole.” (http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.175152)

Condition: richly
inked impression but unevenly printed at the top edge. The sheet is lightly
age-toned and with small tears (repaired), flattened horizontal folds (visible verso but
not recto) and a few pin holes.

I am selling
this remarkable old master print from the Renaissance era for a total cost of
AU$550 (currently US$415.07/EUR389.90/GBP331.26 at the time of this listing)
including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested
in purchasing this lethally charged print, please contact me
(oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make
the payment easy.

This print has been sold

This image of a
peasant aiming his crossbow at the viewer is a perfect example of an image that
engages with its audience by inviting a reflexive/instinctive response AND in encouraging reflective/contemplative
thoughts.

In terms of my
own engagement with this image, my eyes are instinctively drawn as an involuntary
response—a bit like being hit on the knee with a hammer and finding that one’s
leg kicks involuntarily—to the arrow (technically a bolt or quarrel) pointed at
me. The threat, even if it is only a printed image of a threat, seems real and
I have to consciously arrest my attention from staring at the source of my
feeling of alarm. (For those unfamiliar with the head of a bolt, it is not
tapered to a sharp point like an arrow but is flat as shown here.) After I
successfully disengage my involuntary response of alarm, I can then take in the
rest of the portrayed scene and, a bit like Sherlock Holmes, piece together a
contextual narrative for why this figure is about to shoot me.

Regarding the
reflective mode that this image facilitates, note how the owl
above the crossbowman adds a touch of schadenfreude (shameful humour) to the
scene by giving the threatening bowman droppings of appropriate justice for
what he is doing.